We recently connected with Jamie Krakover and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jamie, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
As someone with a knack for STEM, becoming a writer came more as a shock to me than anyone else. I was the kid that used to cry at the kitchen table when they sent story starters home from school because I thought my ideas were dumb. So when I started playing around with ideas and actually finished a full length book, I was bit surprised that I found myself wanting to pursue writing as more than a hobby and seek out traditional publishing.
I spent many years trying to find a literary agent to champion my work. I queried multiple manuscripts with countless rounds of edits in between and had no luck beyond requested material that ultimately turned into rejection. Until one day an agent reached out. She liked my manuscript and had many wonderful things to say about it BUT she felt it required more work than she could take on. So she offered to take another look if I revised my manuscript based off her notes, what querying writers and agents call Revise and Resubmits.
I gave myself a little time to mull over the comments and think through them and then I started getting some ideas on how to fix my manuscript. I reached out to the agent to let her know that I planned to revise and would send a new version when it was complete. And then inspiration struck…
One of the agent’s comments was we know the world in the story is the way it is because the main character tells us its that way, but we don’t really see the world through her eyes. This piece of advice led to a small detail I’d always known about my main character but didn’t know how to make it meaningful to the story.
I always knew my main character was Jewish, and this comment led me to combine that with the world in the book where everyone has tracking chips in their brain. In Judaism many believe that in order to observe Shabbat fully that means not doing work which includes not using technology. But in the world within the story, the characters could not turn off the technology in their heads thus making a tech free Shabbat impossible. And through that hook, I could better demonstrate the world through my character’s eyes.
It seemed like the perfect solution BUT the agent told me to better describe the world through the characters eyes not add a whole religion to the story. I FREAKED OUT. Was this really the right choice for my manuscript? I knew in my gut it was, but I had no idea how the agent would react to the decision. I tentatively went ahead with the edits. In the long run, the manuscript was infinitely stronger than before. When I resubmitted to the agent she offered to represent me and I accepted.
I’d love to say that was the happy end to 8 years of querying but sadly its was not. About six months into the relationship and one edit before the agent wanted to submit my manuscript to publishers, she left agenting for another role in publishing. I was out on my butt and back to square one. I felt utterly lost on my journey and wasn’t sure where to go. I quit writing for a while (in part because of this and in part because I had a baby 4 months later).
But the writing bug and pressure to do something nagged at me. I knew my manuscript was good enough despite failing to find additional representation for it. I knew that I needed to put this manuscript out in the world for readers. Despite being terrified, I took the leap and decided to self publish.
Taking the leap into self publishing meant that I got to make all the choices, editing, cover etc. but it also meant I took on all the cost associated with it all and the risk of not making the money back. And not to mention, I didn’t know where to start on the journey. But I knew I needed to do this for myself and get this book out into the world.
I talked to multiple author friends who had pursued that path and a couple of them introduced me to Snowy Wings Publishing a cooperative indie publisher (a group of self published authors who publish under the same publishing name). I am so thankful for the authors who took me under their wings and walked me through the steps to publish my book, TRACKER220.
While I haven’t made the money back yet (and I’m fortunate enough to have a full time job as an engineer to support myself) holding my book for the first time in real life was the best experience. And to this day I still can’t believe I’m a published author, but it was all worth the risk.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I wear two hats, that of a Rocket Scientist and that of an Author. Throughout a large chunk of my childhood after wanting to be an astronaut, the first strong career pull I had was to be a veterinarian. But junior year of high school I changed my mind and had no idea what major and career I wanted to pursue. My mom suggested I look into engineering. While my Dad was an electrical engineer, I had no idea what engineers actually did. So my mom signed me up for a week long summer program where I got to learn about engineering and the different kinds.
During that program they took us into a lab and loaded a steel rod into a tensile machine and pulled on it until it broke meanwhile describing all the phenomenon that were happening as it stretched and broke. I thought this was the COOLEST thing ever. From that moment on I decided I wanted to break things for a living and looked into universities I could major in engineering at.
Fast forward to my freshman year at Purdue. We had presentations from the various engineering disciplines to help decide which area to pursue. When the aerospace engineering department came to speak I got excited. I had no idea I could combine my love of space with engineering. From that moment on I was sold. Sophomore year when I took my structures class, the professor came in and showed us a video of a 747 wing that they pulled upward on until it broke. Once again I was enamored by how it broke and why. I was convinced I’d chosen the right path.
From there I focused completing a bachelors and masters in Aerospace Engineering thus becoming a Rocket Scientist. I spent my early career on roles related to structural engineering of composites and got to apply all the things I learned at school. And the rest is history.
As for the writing, I didn’t find my love of that until several years into my career. Engineers are not typically known for their love of writing, but they are known for creativity. And creativity is where I started. I began my writing adventure by playing with ideas and what if scenarios and eventually the ideas started to become stories and then full length manuscripts that I wanted to turn into books. And one of the best things about writing is that I can combine my love of STEM into my stories and inspire women to pursue STEM fields.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Early on as a writer, I hungered for feedback anything that would tell me if I was good enough. And secretly I hoped someone would tell me my writing was terrible so I could just quit. With all the feedback I was getting, I thought I needed to incorporate every piece of advice given to strengthen my writing. I edited and edited and edited hoping to improve my craft and also used it as an excuse as to why I couldn’t start querying or take the next steps in my writing journey. But in reality I ended up over editing to the point that my words sounded stiff and lacked voice. As I grew as a writer, I had to learn how to evaluate advice and feedback given on my work and decide if it resonated with me and/or if it was something that needed to be fixed. When to trust the advice and when to trust my vision for the story. Ultimately my writing grew stronger because of it, but it was a long road to learning that lesson.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I don’t know if I could retell this story better than it’s told here: https://alltogether.swe.org/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jamiekrakover.blogspot.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamiekrakover/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rockets2Writing
- Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rockets2writing.bsky.social Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16483406.Jamie_Krakover Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jamie-Krakover/author/B08G1QHCY1?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Newsletter: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/532798/95056881490331119/share
Image Credits
photos taken by myself or a friend